Is Section B of the California Civil Code applicable to an employer who is not a party to the action?

The majority opinion concludes that subdivision (b) is inapplicable if the employer was ever a party to the action, even though the employer did not prosecute the case to judgment. Its analysis relies heavily on the dictionary definition of "prosecute." (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 7) " '[T]o seek the meaning of a statute is not simply to look up dictionary definitions and then stitch together the results. Rather, it is to discern the sense of the statute, and therefore its words, in the legal and broader culture. Obviously, a statute has no meaning apart from its words. Similarly, its words have no meaning apart from the world in which they are spoken.' [Citation.] We do not interpret the meaning or intended application of a legislative enactment in a vacuum." (Hodges v. Superior Court (1999) 21 Cal.4th 109, 114.)